3 Things You Need to Know About CEQUA CEQUA is the name of the 3rd and newest topical dry eye treatment drop to be approved by the FDA. If you’re interested, keep a sharp lookout for the scientific paper on it that was recently accepted for publication. Toyos Clinic is proud to be a research site for dry eye and other ocular disease and to have participated in the research for CEQUA as well as the writing of the paper.
Thing #1 to know about CEQUA: the medication is cyclosporine which is the same medication that has been used for dry eye treatment for the past 13 years in Restasis. CEQUA is different than Restasis in that it has a higher concentration of medication – 0.09% versus 0.05% with Restasis. The higher concentration of medication may be helpful in the treatment of dry eye signs and symptoms.
Thing #2 to know about CEQUA: it’s delivered to the ocular surface via a handy little chemical tool called a micelle. A micelle, simply put, is chemical structure that literally organizes itself into round spheres that point their water-loving ends outside and their water hating ends towards the middle of the sphere. This is important because cyclosporine is notoriously water-hating (it was originally mixed in peanut oil in the early days to help patients not reject their new corneas) with the major problem being that the surface of the eye is mostly water. Cyclosporine has been generic for a few years now, but no other formulations have appeared on the market despite dry eye being a BILLION dollar industry. This tells me that cyclosporine delivery to the eye may be harder chemically than you might imagine and this novel system has found a way around the problem while delivering a clear, consistent dose of medication to the surface of the eye: voila, the magic of the micelles.
The last thing to know about CEQUA was that in the clinical trials, it demonstrated a statistically notable ability to clear the central cornea of dry spots within 28 days. Why is this important? No other dry eye medication to date – not Restasis, not Xiidra – has been able to demonstrate the same. This can be the difference between having to wait a few extra weeks to undergo LASIK or cataract surgery in order to get better measurements or being able to tolerate or not tolerate contact lenses. There is more work to be done and Toyos Clinic is glad to be a part of it. If you have questions about CEQUA or dry eye, call Toyos Clinic today at 615.327.4015 for a free consultation.
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